Quotes about Art
With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.
- Henri Matisse
There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.
- Henri Matisse
I want to reach that state of condensation of sensations which constitutes a picture.
- Henri Matisse
What interests me most is neither still life nor landscape, but the human figure. It is through it that I best succeed in expressing the almost religious feeling I have towards life.
- Henri Matisse
Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul
- Henri Matisse
Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while working.
- Henri Matisse
The essential thing is to spring forth, to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact with a thing. The function of the artist is not to translate an observation but to express the shock of the object on his nature; the shock, with the original reaction.
- Henri Matisse
A thimbleful of red is redder than a bucketful.
- Henri Matisse
Creativity takes courage
- Henri Matisse
My life has been the poem I would have writ, But I could not both live and utter it.
- Henry David Thoreau
The world is but a canvas to the imagination.
- Henry David Thoreau
I wrote poems. That is my work. I am convinced... I believe that what I wrote will be useful to people not only now but in future generations.
- Joseph Brodsky